To be annoyed at boots for this

[pleurotus]

I have a 4 month old who is 95% breastfed. She has had the odd bottle of formula here and there to see if she would take it and so that I can leave her with her Dad should I want a night off or whatever and without having to stash our freezer full of breast milk.

I went in to boots today and tried to buy two bottles of ready made formula with my boots points only for the woman to say I wasn't allowed to use my points to pay for them. When I asked why she said 'because we encourage women to breastfeed'

AIBU to find this ridiculous? I felt a little shamed by her and judged. I almost said 'well I do breastfeed actually' but stopped myself because it's a frigen choice! And so what if I didn't breastfeed at all, it would still be my choice and nobody should be made to feel bad about that. I can't imagine not being able to use your points to pay for formula is hardly discouraging anyone from bottle feeding anyway!

However should I have wanted to spend all of my advantage points on dairy milk and coke that's absolutely fine apparently and boots encourage that

Yanbu

Boots shouldn’t be making judgements like this

They are legally not allowed to reward bottle feeding, it's an exemption from all promotional things. It's the same as not being able to earn reward points/spend reward points on the national lottery

It's not a Boots decision.

The law says that no offers can be applied to baby milk formula, and using loyalty points to pay is an offer.

It’s not just Boots, as a pp said no shop is allowed to offer rewards on formula so you would have had the same problem had you tried to buy it using club card points in Tesco for example.

Is not a judgement. Its law to prevent formula companies aggressively marketing. I think rewards points is a bit of a side effect rather than the specific point, but I do agree restricting aggressively marketing formula is a good thing, so this is a result of that

It's not Boots' rule, it's EU legislation. They are not allowed to promote formula, offer discounts or incentives.

It's just the law, not their opinion.

What everyone else said. It’s not boots. It’s against the law.

I didn't know that. That makes more sense then

She worded it poorly but it’s the law - first stage milk can’t be involved in any promotions. That’s essentially why the stage 2/3 etc exists (because it’s totally pointless and only stage 1 is necessary) - so the formula companies can actually promote and advertise their products.

Yup, absolutely ridiculous.

I had this same issue last year and cried. Boots is an hour drive away, I was eight months pregnant, 18 month old with me. I wanted a ready made pack for hospital bag. Also had a gift card for 30 and points about 40.

1. Gift cards cannot be used online so I had to drive there.
2. Points cannot be used against formula. Obviously I was buying other things but because the formula was mixed in it had to be separated and put into a new transaction, all by itself.
3. Points and gift card cannot be used together either. So we then had to split it further.
4. By the time we had split my bloody maternity pads, nipple pads and heroin formula into three transactions toddler was reaching meltdown and I was in tears.

The most unhelpful system ever.

What they are doing isn’t wrong (it’s the law), how they communicated it was wrong and judgmental.

YABU because it's the law.

Why not use the same law with sugar and processed foods then I wonder...

I knew I couldn't EARN points on formula but genuinely didn't realise I couldn't spend points on it.

YABU as its not Boots, it's the law.

You cannot inventivise or promote formula for under 1's in any way.

I do agree with you that it is not a great policy though, I understand the thought process behind it, but real life is not simple like that.

When I had my twins I nearly died, I lost a significant blood volume that could not be replaced as I reacted poorly to the transfusion. They massively restricted my fluids for several days while in intensive care and my milk never came in properly even though I spent 12 weeks killing myself breast feeding, then bottle feeding then expressing using the hospital grade pump I was loaned by the local breast feeding specialist. I was advised to stop killing myself and give up.

But yet I was afforded no financial breaks for having to buy formula for 2.

There are so many reasons formula may be needed.... Even if that is purely choice.... Its an awful policy even if its well meaning.

It's fine if that's the law, but she could have expressed it in a way which sounded less judgmental given the situation.

@pleurotus

Why not use the same law with sugar and processed foods then I wonder...

They have - there's a sugar tax. Its why almost all soft drinks have sweetener and taste absolutely disgusting now.

It's not really the same though is it. You can still earn points by buying sweets and chocolates and a lot of them still go on offer.

I was in Morrisons yesterday and actually couldn't believe how much crap food I was bombarded with at every corner

It’s the same law that stops supermarkets being able to include formula in offers. It’s not the fault of boots so your annoyance is misplaced. As an aside I thought it was always pretty clearly detailed by boots that formula was exempt from points.

@leakymcleakleak It's terrible if you have to buy full-sugar ones ... they're getting much harder to find and very expensive! Not saying it's on par with OP's situation (obviously more difficult since it affects a child), but there are legitimate, if rare, medical reasons to need a higher calorie intake in any form.

@pleurotus

It's not really the same though is it. You can still earn points by buying sweets and chocolates and a lot of them still go on offer.

I was in Morrisons yesterday and actually couldn't believe how much crap food I was bombarded with at every corner

It's not the same but it still makes life pointlessly difficult for people dealing with very real problems.

I thought it's also not allowed to be on a promotion to discourage people from switching formulas regularly because they are on offer. She shouldn't have explained it like that though (I've bottle fed x3 so I know it's annoying)

The law re not allowing offers on formula for under 1s isn't just to encourage breastfeeding. It's also because if you allow retailers to include formula in their special offers it might encourage parents to switch brands depending on what is the cheapest on any given week. That can be very bad for a baby.

@44PumpLane

YABU as its not Boots, it's the law.

You cannot inventivise or promote formula for under 1's in any way.

I do agree with you that it is not a great policy though, I understand the thought process behind it, but real life is not simple like that.

When I had my twins I nearly died, I lost a significant blood volume that could not be replaced as I reacted poorly to the transfusion. They massively restricted my fluids for several days while in intensive care and my milk never came in properly even though I spent 12 weeks killing myself breast feeding, then bottle feeding then expressing using the hospital grade pump I was loaned by the local breast feeding specialist. I was advised to stop killing myself and give up.

But yet I was afforded no financial breaks for having to buy formula for 2.

There are so many reasons formula may be needed.... Even if that is purely choice.... Its an awful policy even if its well meaning.

That sounds really, really hard. And it sounds like you were given good advice in the end!